Punishment of crimes and child abuse should be made known to the people: Senator Faisal Javed

A meeting of the Upper House Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting was held under the chairmanship of Chairman Committee Senator Faisal Javed at Radio Pakistan Headquarters Islamabad.

In the meeting of the standing committee, the working procedures, programs, structure, budget and issues facing the organization were reviewed in detail, according to reports.

Chairman Committee Senator Faisal Javed said that Radio Pakistan is heard all over the country. The Standing Committee had earlier visited this institution and reviewed its performance and problems and also made some recommendations. DG Radio Pakistan, Umberin Jan, while briefing the standing committee, said that PBC has a board chaired by the Secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and has a total of ten members, including members from all four provinces.

The committee is informed that PBC has 32 broadcasting houses. The first house was set up in Peshawar in 1935 and the last broadcasting house was set up in 2009 in Sialkot. The committee was informed that the houses of Zhob and Batshah were closed and the rest were working.

Senator Maula Bakhsh Chandio said that people in Hyderabad area of Sindh province were very interested in radio broadcasting and programs here were also popular in neighboring countries but unfortunately the condition of this station is very bad. Numerous programs, including music, have been shut down. The standing committee should meet at Hyderabad station to review the issues.

Chairman Committee Senator Faisal Javed said that people trust the news of PTV but there is no grievance cell in such a large institution through which people present their grievances and problems. The best thing to do is to form a committee of three employees in each broadcasting house to deal with the problems. The committee was told that there were two complaints of harassment before the Corona epidemic which have been resolved.

The committee was informed that PBC has 56 FM channels and 24 AM channels and 1121 daily broadcasts per hour in 22 languages. Broadcasts are also conducted in different languages and a record of two million minutes is available. Out of which 0.78 million has been digitized. The committee was also informed that since 1948, a monthly magazine in Urdu language has also been issued monthly. The committee was also informed about the details of the flagship program. It was informed that during the Corona epidemic, programs are run where Dr. Sania Nishtar has been taking live calls for an hour daily to know the grievances of the people and the problems of the people have also been resolved.

Chairman Committee Senator Faisal Javed said that messages regarding child abuse should be run in local languages so that such incidents could be controlled. He said that PBC should make a list of awareness and prepare action plan and mechanism. Senator Syed Muhammad Sabir Shah said that people should be made aware by making priorities of national issues. Senator Sajjad Hussain Turi said that in the country.

Punishment of crimes and child abuse should be made known to the people so that people can stay away from these crimes due to fear and intimidation and Islamic teachings should also be made common. A system should be set up for awareness and early warning should be issued by adopting action plan with NDM and Meteorological Department.

The Chairman of the Committee said that in order to increase the performance and viewership of Radio Pakistan, it should improve the pronunciation and writing. Involve the youth in dramas and other programs. For this, the organization has started talent hunt programs in different cities. He said that Khalid Hameed has been working in BBC and Voice of America and there are legends on the radio which people like very much. Radio Pakistan should also get the services of such people. He said that the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and Reports and magazines published by their subsidiaries should be provided to the Standing Committee.

The committee was informed that 117 news bulletins are run in Urdu, English and foreign languages. There are 2.6 million followers on Facebook, 600,000 on Tutor, 19,000 on Instagram and 8,000 on YouTube. Web access is also available. The committee was informed that Radio Pakistan also has a mobile application from which people are benefiting. The committee was informed that the upgrade of Radio Pakistan Multan has been completed in June 2020 with the technical assistance of South Korea. Wave Transmitter, 100 KW in Mirpur and 100 Watt Medium Wave Transmitter in Gwadar Balochistan are also being worked on.

The committee was informed that in January 2020, the PBC Board has approved the Digital Policy and DRM which will be worked on in three phases. The PC One is worth Rs 10.6 billion. The watt will be through a medium view transmitter which will benefit people in India, Nepal, Afghanistan, Iran, UAE, Oman, Qatar and other countries. The chairman of the committee raised concerns over background music during the news. Expressing that there is a lot of noise, people are tired of it, it should be improved.

The committee was informed that a budget of Rs. 7,133 million was sought for the financial year 2020 but a grant of Rs. 4,373 million was given. The income of the organization is Rs. 285 million and the expenditure is Rs. 5,601 million, the deficit is Rs. 942 million. The committee was informed that the liabilities of the organization for 2019-20 are also Rs. 899 million. Goes away 6% is spent on production, 8% on operations and 3% on administrative matters. The committee was informed that the total number of sanctioned posts of the institution is 3264 out of which 2357 posts are filled by persons and 907 posts are vacant.